Wednesday, January 23, 2013

RANT - COUNTER RANT: SOME (WHAT I HOPE IS) MEDIEVAL THINKING

Joe Cullen of Alliance wrote a letter to the editor of the
Akron Beacon Journal about guns and the NRA and PUCO, which might be good, but
he so incredible annoyed me with his first sentence that I could not read on
any further.It was an unwarranted and
ignorant attack on the Church.

Here is the sentence in part:“. . .[it] makes me wonder if we are
revisiting the times of Galileo and Pope Urban VIII.That subject is a fear or hatred of science.”

This fallacy is kicked around so often it is thought of in
the collective memory as true.It is
like Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” the story of the hunch-backed diabolical king
of England that is such a good story that if it isn’t true, it should be.Yet it is not.In fact, Richard might have been one of the
finest kings ever to sit on the thrown.But who really cares in the light of such a good and well believed story?

So it is with Galileo and the Church.To begin with, is it not odd that this is
practically the only story
that pops into anybody’s mind demonstrating a rocky relationship between the
Church and science?How many other
monumental stories can you sight from history?This is not an example of a war between science and faith, this is an
example of the exception to the rule.

Further, Galileo did not invent the idea that the sun was
the center of our solar system.It had
been well known as a theory for centuries.Further, a tiny bit of research would have revealed to Mr. Cullum that
Galileo did not prove anything.It was a theory that he put forth as fact that could not be proven by the scientific method.Yet, despite warnings from his fellow scientists he put the theory
forth as fact.Further, he was wrong in stating that it was fact that the sun was the center of the universe.

Yet still he might have been fine had he remained in the
area of science.Yet he pushed into
areas of theology making bold statements using his (only partially correct, un-provable
theory) as a means to dictate to Scripture scholars how they must interpret
Scripture.Then after many cautions and (perhaps
inadvertently) publically humiliating the pope and alienating the scientific
community, he was placed under house arrest under the most generous of
circumstances.

Could the whole thing been handled better? Yes on both sides. Was it the hatred of science that it is always carted out as demonstrating? Not even remotely.

Far from being hostile to the science, the Church embraces science,
has produced great scientists, has supported great science.From the microscope to the telescope to the
Big Band theory (as “invented” by a Jesuit priest) the Church helped invent,
fund, support, and teach great science.It is all there in history, methodically ignored by “historians” and
misinformed writers of letters to the editor who try to make a point using
false “truths”.

One thing that I don’t blame Mr. Cullun for is the title of
his letter which was undoubtedly chosen by an equally misinformed editor.“Medieval Thinking”Not to say that the Medieval period was all a
piece of cake, it had some serious problems. But it was not all the vacuous black hole of human intellegence that light weight
historians like to believe (and teach) that it was.From this period we have the birth of
universities, hospitals, modern forms of government, unparalleled opportunities
for women to be educated and placed in positions of power (through the Church).Architecture flourished. Mathematics and philosophy and the intellectual
life in general made great strides.Countries were brought under leadership making crime and violence in a unified
Christendom less of a threat.Art takes
on new importance.

It is easy to look back on an age and point out all the bad
aspects of it.One can only guess how we
will be viewed: the bloodiest centuries ever, wars, mass shootings, abortion, pollution,
the highest ever incarceration rate, the suppression of religion, one third of
the world starving and one third of the world eating itself to death, the baseness
of modern entertainment . . . the list could go on and on.So to use the term “Medieval” as a derogatory
word is both pointless and misleading.One could come up with a very plausible argument that the editor
disagrees with the writer of the article sighting that he believes the Galilean
controversy was enlightened.

(Can you tell I’ve been brooding about this for two days?)

The irony here is that Mr. Cullun and the paper did exactly
what Galileo did (and I fulfilled the role of the pope.)They state things as fact, based on faulty
information, when they could have done so much good.And I felt I had to set the record
straight.I would not, however place
them under house arrest, I would take their pens away until they attended a
middle school history course.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I think the entire way we communicate has changed. Communication must be strongly punctuated with shock value and quality entertainment or else no one will pay attention. Who cares if it's true as long as it's entertaining? It seems like that was his approach. Facts are out of fashion.

Nicholas Copernicus, a university-trained Catholic priest dedicated to astronomy, was acquainted with the sun-centered cosmos of the ancient Greek Aristarchus. In 1543 he published his theory, which predated Galileo. The truth of Galileo's situation cannot be adequately explained in a 30-second sound bite.

Kreeft writes, "A clever debater once accused William F. Buckley of having 'one of the finest minds of the thirteenth century.' Buckley replied, 'I don't deserve that compliment.' Buckley was not a progressivist; his debate partner was."

Bring on the "Medieval Thinking"! I'll take Thomas Aquinas over Peter Singer anyday.

Good post Father. And nice reference @MaryofSharon. I've heard the term 'chronological snobbery' before, probably reading something about Kreeft. There's definitely a strong tendency in our current culture to assume we are wiser than any generation past, simply because now is later than before. Technologically, we're incredibly advanced... in other ways we're no further along (or actually further behind) than those that preceeded us by thousands of years (think St Augustine).

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MONDAY - Monday Diary: A day in the life of a priest.TUESDAY - Quote Tuesday: A post of an interesting quote along with various other things sitting on my computer from the past week such as links, polls, pictures, videos, or games.WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY - Thoughts for your consideration either from me or guest bloggers.FRIDAY - Friday Popourri - A grab bag of regular topics from symbolism to vocation stories.